


Sliding Along The Ice

by gladiatorgrl2703



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe, Klaus and Five go on an adventure, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2019-11-01 04:01:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17859902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gladiatorgrl2703/pseuds/gladiatorgrl2703
Summary: In the frantic calculations of transporting multiple people through time, Number Five miscalculates and accidentally brings himself and Klaus into an alternate reality. Six different people have been adopted by Reginald Hargreeves, and so Klaus and Five must hunt down the original members in an attempt to once again stop the apocalypse.In doing so, they get a glimpse to the lives each of them might have had had they not been adopted.(Updates every Saturday)





	1. Reappearing as An Acorn

It was a chance to redo a million insignificant moments. And it hit Five, the moment right after he opened the temporal anomaly, how inexplicably difficult that was going to be. He saw dozens of half-completed equations flash behind his eyes as he tried to consider which specific moments would alter the path of time.

Not acorning be damned. This was more akin to becoming an entire fucking oak tree.

As they were ejected from the portal, Five felt Allison’s finger slip from his hand. Diego’s grip tightened for a brief moment but fell away just as quickly. And in the last moment, right before Five felt the familiar dip in his stomach from entering a new time period, a hand clenched around his ankle, tight and unyielding. He fell against the hard ground with the hand still taking hold.

The impact of the ground knocked the wind right from his lungs, and despite the deep rattling motions of his chest, he couldn’t take a breath in. He squeezed his eyes tight, stars bursting behind his eyelids from the tension.

He heard the sound of Klaus upending the contents of his stomach before he opened his eyes to see it.

Five blinked as he took in his surroundings, surprised to find they had been dropped right in the middle of the Academy’s living room. Surprised more yet to see Klaus crumpled on the ground in his fifteen year old body. 

“The date,” Five said distantly, his voice still feeling slightly disconnected from his body.

Klaus groaned in response.

“Useless,” Five muttered as he pushed himself off his hands and knees. He stumbled around the room until he found the newspaper next to Father’s armchair.

“March 24th, 2019,” Five read aloud.

“Oh we get to relive this horrendous week all over again,” Klaus said nostalgically. He remained face down on the floor, his voice muffled by the thick carpet. ““Got a little quiet there, Five. What no condescending retort?”

Five stared up at the place where the portraits of the Umbrella Academy hung, not recognizing a single face except their Father’s. Six children stared back at him behind the same mask he had donned as a youth. He felt Klaus come up next to him.

“Has he done this before?” Klaus asked looking up at the painting.

“You’re the one who spoke to him,” Five said accusatorially.

“Right. That’s what dad was known for: being forthcoming.”

“It must be a different timeline.”

“What? Like an alternate universe?”

Five shook his head, disbelief coloring his movements as he looked around at the rest of the Academy. “Precisely.”

Klaus let out a delighted little laugh. “So now, we have to stop an Apocalypse and find a way to jump through alternate realities. You know, I know they always told you you were the smart one, Five, and by all accounts, I’m the idiot, but all I’m saying is I’ve never fucked with our timeline twice.”

“Right. Just the once then,” Five said bitterly.

The insult didn’t hit as close to home, his distraction keeping the delivery from having maximum impact.

“And the others?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, did they come with us to this timeline, or are they stuck in the other one?”

“I don’t know.”

Klaus paused for a moment, turning to stare at Five before speaking again. “God, it must kill you to say those three words.”

Klaus spun on his heel with a small laugh and headed towards the stairs.

“Klaus,” Five whisper-yelled as he started ascending the staircase.

“What?” Klaus threw over his shoulder. “Aren’t you curious?”

“Not the point,” Five said, moving closer in quick and efficient motions. “You have no idea who these people are. More importantly, what their powers are. Try to think logically for a moment.”

“That’s more your thing,” Klaus dismissed.

It didn’t seem that anyone was home, but it was the middle of the afternoon and Five knew that didn’t make any sense. They moved through bedrooms that were apparently not their own.

He was about to prompt Klaus once more when he got the sinking feeling that something was not right. Klaus entered the bedroom that would have been his, decorated with bright purple decorations and photographs of wild animals.

That was the moment Klaus’ body crumpled to the floor.

“Fuck,” Klaus cried out, clutching the back of his head. He rolled over on his back, legs kicking out wildly, as his face turned red. He grabbed violently at the space above his neck, where he appeared to be choking on nothing, clawing and scratching above him as the veins bulged out of his neck and forehead.

Five zapped out of his current spot and came into the space just by Klaus’ head, a purple pencil in his hand slicing through the air. The moment the pencil sunk into something solid in the empty space above Klaus, a body appeared and fell to the ground, clutching at the place where the pencil had been lodged into a young girls shoulder.

She cried out as Klaus kicked her off of him, but he didn’t have a spare moment to get off his back before two other people were coming into the room.

“Mallory!” Another girl yelled. She had long dark hair and small narrow eyes, a short build, but a fierce look on her face.

One minute she was by the doorway, and in the next she was on top of Klaus, punching his face so sharply the back of his head bounced on the floor. For a moment, Five was convinced they had the same power, and he moved quickly out of the way, before realizing she wasn’t moving through space. This woman's ability was super speed, and it made for an exciting fight.

Every new place that Five zapped to in the room, and she was there in an instant, with a punch that he was just able to escape narrowly.

Klaus meanwhile, was having a hell of a time on the ground, for it seemed the boy who had entered the room had some sort of control of electricity.

“Get us the fuck out, Five,” Klaus pleaded as he clawed at the wooden floorboards.

Five couldn’t have agreed more. He grabbed Klaus’ jacket, and they were gone. They landed on the grass in a park a few blocks away.

“They have way better powers than we do,” Klaus said bitterly. “What the fuck was that?”

Five was shaking his head. “Not our concern right now. If in this reality we were never adopted by Reginald Hargreaves, then there isn’t any way we can find a way to fix Vanya.”

“We don’t even know if the family adopted her.”

“We can find that out easily.”

“Oh, really?” Klaus said skeptically. “Your version of easily, or everyone else’s?”

“Don’t be a dumbass. Vanya wrote a book. If she’s the cause of the apocalypse, the circumstances of her upbringing would be the same. We need to find the book, and I will be able to come up with a plan from there.”

“Hopefully a better one then let’s just through an alternative reality to solve this pesky apocalypse problem.”

Five bit his tongue, opting for silence than an admittance that he had miscalculated. This was an utter clusterfuck, but he had dealt with too many things in his fifty-eight years to be brought down by these small details. For now, it was a matter of readjusting his plan and then following through. And this new plan started, like so many other, with a trip to the library.


	2. The Benchmark Is Extraordinary

“What if Vanya wasn’t adopted by Dad?” Klaus asked. It wasn’t his first time asking a question Five couldn’t answer about this world. Klaus had been peppering him with questions since they left the park. 

“Then we need to find where she is. Acknowledge if she is a threat.” 

“What if there is no apocalypse in this timeline?” 

“Then we focus our attention on getting out.” 

“If we stop the apocalypse in this timeline, does that stop it in our reality?” 

Five didn’t answer. 

Klaus tried again. “Okay,” he sang. “I will take your silence as ‘I don’t know’ which I know it kills you to say.” He chuckled a bit but grew slightly more somber. 

“Any ideas on how we might get back? Any equations rattling around in that brain of yours?” 

“Can you please, _please_ , shut the fuck up.” 

“Aw, you’re going to hurt my feelings, brother.” The face he made suggested that it was unlikely, and Five rolled his eyes and shook his head. 

“I’ve told you before. We need to get to the library, and from there we gather as much information as we can.” He grabbed hold of Klaus and jumped them to the third floor of the Argyle Public Library, where only a few days ago Klaus and Diego had found him passed out drunk. 

“Make yourself useful and start using the microfilm reader to find anything you can about these kids. There were all kinds of articles published about us when we were young. I’m sure there is the same information on them. I’ll look for Vanya’s book.” 

Before Klaus could protest, Five leaped to the location he remembered Vanya’s book being, and sure enough, sitting eye level on the shelf in front of him was the dull black cover with a shrunken picture of little Riko. It even had the same title. _EXTRA ORDINARY: My Life As Number Seven_. That solved the question of whether or not she was adopted, and provided a likely explanation of whether there would be an apocalypse in this reality as well. 

When Five returned to the spot where he had left Klaus, Klaus was staring discontentedly down at his hands. 

“What’s wrong with you?”

Klaus hesitated. “I can’t reach Ben. He’s usually right there within grasp as long as I’m half-way sober, but there’s nothing.” 

Five paused for a moment. “Well, the likeliest explanation is that he is not dead in this reality.” 

“No Dad, no deadly mission,” Klaus deduced. 

“Again, that’s the most likely explanation.” 

Five dropped Vanya’s book on the table. 

“You’re probably the only one that didn’t read the original. Give it a go. I’ll take over here,” Five instructed, pointing at the cabinets of microfilm. 

“I read the original.” At the look Five threw his way, Klaus feigned indigence, clutching the book to his chest in shock. “I read all the bits about myself. Mostly accurate. I come across quite charming. You, however, came off rather…” Klaus considered the best word to use. 

“Disciplined?” Five supplied as he pulled several film wheels from the relevant years out of the cabinet. 

“Obsessive.” He quickly amended, “No, Controlling. No…Ah, that’s it. A know-it-all pain in the ass.”

“Shut up and read,” Five bit back. He started to carefully load one of the films into the reader, careful not to scratch the panels as he did so, and when it clicked into place he felt slightly relieved. He may not have any answers yet, but that was the whole purpose of research after all, to discover truths. 

“She makes it so easy for her readers,” Klaus announced a moment later, holding up a table of contents. Each of the middle chapters was dedicated to one family member. 

With irritating enthusiasm, Klaus began to read. 

“Number 1, or Roger as we called him, was as manipulative as he was talented, though it was hardly his fault Father dangled first place in front of him. Less his fault that Dad created a world where we would have killed each other for a small scrap of his approval.” Klaus made a soft cooing noise. “Aw, Dad’s a bit more of a softy in this world, no?” 

“Less reading aloud, more divulging information that matters. I don’t care about their relationships. Tell me their powers.” 

The silence of the library was starting to get to Five, and every so often, even though he was using a machine that had been destroyed in the wreckage, even though he _knew_ he was inside, he had to look around to ensure that he wasn’t somehow back in the post-apocalyptic world, alone. 

“Ok. Here we go…” Klaus said before clearing his throat. “Each of my siblings had a power that my father saw fit to rank. Number 1: Roger…blah blah…manipulate electricity. Number 2: Lynette could heal virtually anyone of virtually anything. Number 3: Mallory could disappear on a whim, turning herself completely invisible. Number 4: Sebastian…unnecessary exposition…used echolocation. Number 5: Su-jin could run at speeds faster than light itself. Huh, kind of cool…And number 6: Darrion had the power of flight. As for myself, I was numbered 7, and I was told, categorically, that there was nothing special about me. No power. I was completely, and disappointingly, ordinary.” 

“A lot more girls,” Klaus commented as he continued thumbing through pages. 

“Any casualties?” Five asked. He felt Klaus’ eyes on him immediately. It was no secret that Ben and Klaus had been the closest, and when Ben was gone, there was no one to keep Klaus from diving off the deep end. 

“I’ll look,” Klaus muttered. 

They sat in silence for a few more minutes before Klaus sighed, wild and exaggerated before bouncing up. He leaned over Five’s shoulder. 

“Whatcha doing there, Five?”

“Researching, like you should be.”

“Got. Bored,” Klaus said, enunciating the last syllable of each word right in Five’s ear. 

Five ignored him, moving the microfilm around on the reader to skip to a different part of the newspaper. 

“You know, I’ve been thinking…” 

“Good lord.” 

“Rude. Anyway,” Klaus said letting out a long sigh. “Would it be so bad to chill in this reality for a while? Just age ourselves up, keep an eye on Vanya. Maybe become her friendso she doesn't have to meet Harold Jenkins. We could teach her about her powers? Prevent the apocalypse and then you know hang out until we figure a way back.” 

“Besides the glaringly obvious problem that the Commission will probably be after us, it will be a waste of time.” 

“ _And_? You already lived an extra forty-five years. I’ve come back with an extra one under my belt. What’s the big deal?” 

Five turned around to look at Klaus. 

It was strange to see him this way, as a kid again. When Klaus had been fifteen, he’d just started taking more dangerous drugs. But at this point in time, with their fifteenth birthday a little over three months away, there hadn’t been anything but alcohol and pot pumping through him. His face was clear, and bright, if not a little disturbed. 

Five wondered briefly how it was that the one of them who was so outwardly fucked up, who could be so haunted by the past (to use Vanya’s original phrasing), had remained the most optimistic. He thought of Diego, jaded since birth, and Allison who finally found out that the world was not fair and yours to manipulate. He thought of Vanya who had always known, and Luther who believed he could change it, but saw the world for what it was. Something like pity bubbled in Five’s stomach. It curbed the impatience, kept it at bay. 

“We don’t know where the others went when we came here. I’m assuming they went through the original equation I used, but I can’t be sure. And we don’t know what kind of world they are stepping into. There are too many…variables, and,” Five struggled for the words. “If it wasn’t already abundantly clear, time is more complicated than we thought. More complicated even than my thirty years of trying to solve it has suggested. As for doubles, as for closing timeline loops, what happens to someone when they are in one timeline and its effects on others, I just can’t be sure. Our best bet is to get back as quickly as we can before something happens to them. Or to us.” 

Klaus took a second to take that in. 

“So, what is the plan? I know you already have one.” 

“We track ourselves down, and the others as well. Try to unite us as a group. Either we use our collective power or us being together is enough of a significant factor that the Commission comes after us. I don’t know much, but I do know that this is what we are meant to do. And if we can’t stop the apocalypse then what the hell has all this shit in our childhood been for anyway?” 

Five expected Klaus to have a witty retort or crack an uncomfortable joke, but all he did was blink. 

“Okay,” he said. 

“It’s not much,” Five admitted. “But as I said, there are too many unknowns. If we can get the attention of the Commission at least we can be sure that we can get back to our rightful timeline. If not, we can use our collective powers to stop Vanya. It’s too much to get the other Umbrella Academy involved. ” 

“Alright. How can I be useful?” 

“Take some of these microfilm slides. I want to see if we can pinpoint the locations of the other mysterious births on October 1st, 1989. We might be able to find ourselves.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW! I cannot believe the response to the first chapter!! It's been so great reading through your comments, and hopefully the fic continues to be entertaining! 
> 
> This fic will be updated once weekly, either Friday or Saturday. 
> 
> Please continue to provide feedback! And if anyone has any ideas on where the locations should be let me know. I have a basic idea but I'm happy to take suggestions as well! Thanks again for all the support.


	3. Imagine Me and You, I Do

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, one small note involving the plot of the story. I've decided it would be much more interesting to drop them into a world where their future selves are considerably older so as to see the potential lives they might have lived. I will adjust the first two chapters to reflect that it is actually 2019 and not the original 2004 that I had suggested initially. 
> 
> As for their names and locations--given there just aren't many details in the sourcematerial about their backgrounds, I am obviously taking EXTREME liberties here. I'm trying to strike a balance between creative and logical, and I want their names to reflect the characters that we all know. That being said, the last name I've given Five, Braddock, means broad oak--as a kind of homage to the acorn metaphor that has so deeply characterized him. His first name just seemed fun to go along with.

It took hours, and Klaus didn’t stop complaining the entire time. After Five reminded him that it wouldn’t be so difficult if he stopped being such idiot, Klaus decided to abandon his research and spend the remaining hour pestering Five by throwing small bits of paper at him from various angles. 

Five, not particularly known for his patience, remained resolute in not rising to the bait Klaus was so obvious setting in front of him as he scribbled down information about each of his siblings on small scraps of paper. It hadn’t been easy, but he’d located almost all of them. From newspaper articles, to research papers on those with superhuman powers, to interviews that some of them had given, it was barely enough information to find where they were or where they would be currently. But at the very least they had enough to get started. 

“I can’t find myself,” Klaus groaned. “God, I hope I’m not boring.” 

“God forbid,” Five muttered. 

“I can’t even imagine our lives without our father.” 

The sincerity of it caused Five to look up. Klaus had gone quiet, and not quite still but almost. When Five looked over Klaus was laid out on his back staring up blankly at the ceiling. 

“It never did us any good to think about that when we were growing up.” 

Klaus hadn’t moved. “Did you, though?” 

Five shook his head slowly but kept his eyes trained on his brother. 

“I used to,” Klaus said with a sigh. “I’d imagine what my parents were like. Imagine where I was from. He never told us. I suspected maybe the names Mom gave us were potential clues, but I don’t know…I used to think about who I would be without my power.” 

Five didn’t bother pointing out that in this reality, as far as he could tell from his research, they still had their powers. They led vastly different lives for the most part, but they were still among those 43 random and unexpected births on October 1st. 

“I used to think about why our mothers had given us up. All the time, actually. We never talked about it with each other.” 

Five looked away, suddenly not wanting to get into this with Klaus. Clearly, he was still an emotional wreck. His body might not be coming off a seventeen year bender, but his mind most definitely was. Add to that the symptoms of time travel, the likely PTSD of all his shit, and the new jumps in his ability, and Five was horribly afraid about Klaus cracking. He wasn’t prepared to deal with this. He hadn’t been trained properly. 

“They gave us up because the old man paid them. Handsomely, from what the papers had to say,” Five said. He hadn’t intended for it to come across callous, and he hated feeling like he needed to treat Klaus with kid gloves. He’d known his brother his whole life, and while he had suffered, Five could never claim that Klaus was weak. 

“Yeah. I suppose you’re right.” 

“Was that ever really a question?” Five asked, bringing forth his usual bravado. He wanted desperately for this moment to be over. Klaus’s face broke into a small smirk and Five felt something tense and tight in his stomach relax. 

Five turned back to his research. He was so close to coming on a location for their first visit, and the distraction of Klaus, though expected, derailed his focus. He wondered for a moment how Klaus’ body was reacting to the time jump. He’d been a twitchy withdrawn messeven as they apocalypse had leaped them into action, but now Klaus—forever moving, forever chattering—seemed calmer. He was more like the boy that Five had left than the man Five had found when he’d returned. 

The moment he clicked on a link for the University visiting lecturer page, Five knew that he had finally zeroed in on a location. As soon as he scribbled the exact address and information on a scrap of paper, he dropped the pencils and balled the papers into his fist. He stood abruptly, wrapping his free hand around Klaus’ shoulder. And then they were there. 

“Wasting no time I see.” Klaus looked around as suddenly they were transported to a new location. “Where are we?” 

“The University of Cambridge.” 

Klaus’ eyes went wide. “You just blinked us here? Are you insane? That’s halfway across the world.” 

“Well, at least I know the drugs haven’t fried every brain cell,” Five said as he started off in a very particular direction. His movements were quick—after all there was no time to waste. Klaus had to speed up to catch up to his side. 

“My last three keep competing for my attention,” Klaus said with a laugh. The tension from earlier was gone. 

“Wow. Three. Triple what I thought remained.” 

“At least I’m not dumb enough to transport us thousands of miles away.” 

Five rolled his eyes. “I can leap through space, Klaus. I’ve already brought myself back in time twice now.” 

Klaus’ eyes narrowed and his smirk was as condescending as it was amused. “Isn’t this exactly the kind of confidence that’s fucked you sideways twice now?” 

“Calculations were a bit off is all.” As he brushed aside Klaus’ comment he came up on  a path heading right towards the address he was looking for. 

The grass was freshly mowed, hedges trimmed in odd ovular shapes as the boys moved through the path. They received a few odd looks on their way through the university, but Five recognized the stout iron horse statue outside the college he was looking for and turned sharply right.

“So, Cambridge, huh? Who is here?” 

“I am.” 

“Why do we get to see you first?” Klaus whined. 

“Because at least I know I have a functioning brain, no matter what reality we are in.” Five looked at the address he had scribbled down and tried to orient himself with the area. “Besides, it seems that Luther grew up close by, so may as well get both of us at the same time.” 

“College campus. Ideal location to score.” 

“This is not about your crumbling resolve in the face of temptation,” Five said harshly. “And besides, your body hasn’t been this clean in ages. You may as ride it while the withdrawal isn’t that bad.” 

“Physical withdrawal is only one part of it,” Klaus said sagely, though he looked around distractedly, as though trying to locate a potential dealer. 

Five stepped smoothly in front of him. 

“One day at a time. You remember that?” Five asked accusatorially. 

There was no way Klaus didn’t. It had been the exact phrase he’d muttered to himself after he’d accused Five of being an addict just like him. Five watched the recognition flash behind Klaus’ eyes. Klaus nodded solemnly. 

“Good. Now hurry up,” Five said as he started down the path towards a large brick building. “Or we will be late.” 

They navigated quickly through the halls, a few students moving past them in either direction. The clocks outside rang once to mark the quarter of an hour, the sound echoing through the halls that were gradually stilling. 

“Are you a student here?” Klaus asked as the rounded a corner. 

Five scoffed. “Of course not. The future me is giving a lecture.”

“Oh god. Are we going to have to sit through listening to you talk?” 

“Yes,” Five said. He turned on Klaus sharply and set his eyes in their best narrowed intimidating squint. “Now. Don’t you do anything embarrassing, got it? We are trying to be as inconspicuously as possible. 

“Inconspicuous, got it.” And then, upon looking around, Klaus caught sight of a poster outside the lecture hall. He gasped before drawing closer, examining it with glee. 

“Oh my god.” 

Five rolled his eyes, turning his attention to the poster. 

A future version of himself stared back, all hard unimpressed stoicism, with arms folded in front of his body. His face had lost all of its boyishness, and Five felt an unexpected lurch in his stomach that traveled up his throat. He could barely stand to stare at himself. He hadn’t had time to process having to live his whole life all over again, but looking at this familiar older version of himself he hated his circumstances so deeply that it brought bile, hot and acidic, into his mouth. He frowned slightly. 

“The Illusions of Space-Time and the Quantum with Fred Braddock.” Klaus couldn’t keep the laughter out of his voice. 

“Fred,” Five muttered as he moved towards the doors to the lecture hall. “What a stupid fucking name.” 

Klaus grinned brilliantly as they slipped inside.


	4. Number Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so so sorry for the delay in this chapter! It kind of took me some time to come up with how I wanted the dynamic to play out. I appreciate you waiting! And I hopefully will be updating much more frequently :)

Five found the lecture to be, quite honestly, rather contrived. He knew what Delores would say if she was here with him listening to it. He chuckled at the thought before pushing it out of his mind. He knew he had done the right thing with their parting, but it didn’t make the void in his chest feel any smaller. When he’d left her the first time, it was with every intention of coming back once he was able to make his escape from the Commission. Now…well, that was a matter best saved for contemplating with a margarita in his hand. 

“Do we really have to listen to this whole thing?” Klaus asked, slumping further down in his chair. “It’s boring enough listening to you and we grew up together.” 

“Shh,” Five hissed. 

They sat in the back row of the lecture hall, which was quite large and rather well attended. But with university students, even at a prestigious institution such as this one, there was an expected level of worshipers to flock those deemed respectable by academia. Five didn’t think it was necessarily representative of Fred’s intelligence. 

He watched this alternate version of himself carefully, taking in the various details that made up this person before him. At 30, Five had been too preoccupied trying to survive the apocalypse to take much concern with his appearance, but he realized he had never seen himself freshly shaven at this age. The first time he shaved he had been an old man already, wrinkles folding the rough skin of his face as though all the youth had been sucked right out of him. But Fred was _youthful_ in a way Five didn’t remember having the capacity to be—and he knew how to work a crowd. He made all the appropriate little academic jokes, inciting small chuckles from faculty and students alike. He had a soft smile, turned slightly at the corners, which seemed to suggest _I am perfectly approachable_ and betrayed all of the arrogance Five could see so plainly in his eyes. 

It was unnerving to Five to think of what he might have done, who he might have been, had he grown up with his siblings instead of transporting himself away. He had told Hazel that he might’ve grown to be emotionally stunted man-child like everyone else, partially joking, but he was for the first time _envious._ Are had been allowed a childhood, an adolescence. It was not a welcome feeling. 

Five recognized the exact moment that Fred saw them—his eyes skated over Klaus without a second thought, but the moment he saw Five’s face a muscle in his cheek twitched, eyes growing fractionally wide. To anyone else, it was entirely unnoticeable but to Five, who had been watching for the slightest change, the recognition was obvious. 

“He’s seen us,” he mumbled to Klaus. “Get up.”

“Leaving?” Klaus asked hopefully. 

“Yes,” Five said, holding Fred’s eyes a moment longer before getting up. 

“Now he’ll come looking for us?” Klaus asked as they stepped into the hallway. 

“No. We’ll find him. Let’s find the stage entrance.” 

“He was babbling on and on and on about space. God, it was like listening to Luther when we were kids. Space this and moon that and _I’m going to be an astronaut_.” He used his Luther Voice as he imitated him, and despite Five’s annoyance he had to admit it was pretty spot on. 

“He wasn’t talking about _that_ kind of space,” Five said with a roll of his eyes. He scoffed, “Planets and astronomy…He means theoretical space.” 

“Right, right _theoretical space,_ ” Klaus nodded. It was clear his mind was somewhere else, but Five didn’t have time to consider the stability of the training wheels on Klaus’ rickety mind. 

They rounded the corner of the hallway and continued on until they found the door to the stage entrance. Five settled himself on the wall right behind it, crossing his arms as they waited. 

Klaus filled the air with his thoughts, outlandish and unconnected as they were, and Five tried his best to entertain Klaus’ growing boredom. His mind was somewhere else entirely though. 

He was unsure how this meeting with Fred would go, and he honesty wasn’t sure what he would do if he were unable to unite his family. He wasn’t sure if just meeting them would be enough of a significant factor that the Commission would send agents, and he wasn’t sure if he was doing anything the right way. But he was desperate, and in the desperation, he resolved himself to all down. He had chosen a path, and it would do no good to agonize all of the what ifs. Sometimes in his teenage body, with its adolescent physiology, anxiety he had grown out of years ago manifested in a constricted chest and clenched jaw. Yet one of the many ways his body betrayed his experience. 

The sound of the door opening pulled him from his thoughts and Five was glad to find his assumption on how Fred would respond was accurate. 

Fred, who burst quickly through the stage door, ready to tear off down the hallway stilled one he saw Five. Surprise showed clearly on his face, and Five, despite needing to get down to business as possible, took some small satisfaction in catching him off-guard. 

“Fred, is it?” Five asked. 

Fred moved his gaze towards Klaus, who leaned against the wall silently assessing the interaction. 

“Yes,” he said. He adjusted his shirt, pulling it down into place before speaking again. “And you?” 

“Five. Klaus,” Five threw his head over towards Klaus, who waved his GOODBYE hand and smiled tauntingly. “I’m sure you are wondering what we are doing here—”

Fred cut him off, his features sliding back into place on his face. “Seeing as you clearly look just like me as a kid and all. I’ve been thinking through some theories while I finished the lecture.” 

His English accent was prominent, and coated the words as they fell from his lips. It was jarring to Five for some reason he could not quite explain. He crossed his arms and resisted the urge to tap his foot. 

“We don’t have time for that, actually.” Five could feel his impatience closing in a round his throat. “We are from an alternate timeline, and we need to find a way back so that we can stop the apocalypse. Or prevent it from happening here.” 

“The apocalypse?” Fred asked flatly. His eyes flicked to Klaus, full of flat disbelief. 

“That’s right. Now, it will work best if you just shut up and let us explain.” 

“I don’t think you understand who it is you’re speaking to—”

“I know exactly who I’m speaking to. You are the alternate version of me. My brother and I have come to you specifically because you are the most likely to help us out of the rest of our family, and I can at least count on your cognitive abilities, having lived through my thirties before.” 

Fred was silent for a moment as he processed and then his eyebrows came up, knitting carefully in the middle. 

“Got stuck in the future, huh?” It was casual, a soft smile on his face. “Miscalculate time dilation projections or was it something else?” 

The condescendence he used as he said it had Klaus curling his lip. Five moved his mouth into a terse smile, all sarcasm and contempt. 

“Happen to you as well?” 

Fred laughed, and the sound grated in Five’s ears—surely he hadn’t sounded like that at that age. He remembered being thirty, the air of arrogance stronger and that optimism of finding a way back not even close to being beaten out of him. He didn’t remember acting like such a pompous asshole though. Though, admittedly there hadn’t been many people to reign superior over. 

“Of course not,” Fred said. “All my theoretical models pointed to disaster.” 

“So you live in the abstract,” Five hedged. It was anything but playful, though his tone suggested he was being nothing short of polite. Fred must have recognized it as a move he used often, because his own lips formed a smile that matched Five’s.

“I just prefer not to jump in aimlessly when patience is all that is required of me.” 

“Regardless,” Five said. “When I jumped to the future, there was nothing but apocalyptic wasteland. I stayed there well past fifty years before I managed to make it back. The second go around trying to time-travel back was not as successful, and my brother and I landed here, in this version of reality.” 

“And your plan is?” 

“You’ve heard of the Umbrella Academy?” Klaus asked, interrupting Five. 

“I have, yes. Others born on the same date with powers similar to mine.” 

“We were part of the Umbrella Academy in our world. And one of them causes the apocalypse. She’s still there in the Academy in this world, and it is likely she will do the same thing. So, we need to stop her. And we also need to find a way back.” 

Five looked at Klaus, a little astonished at how well he managed to sum their mission up. 

“We want something big to bring the attraction of the Commission. They are like the time police. Took me hostage, tried to assassinate all of us for fucking with the timeline in our world. We were thinking if we do something crazy here in this world, like try to unite all of us, it will get their attention. So we started with you, for the reasons Five already mentioned.” 

“That’s a little simplistic don’t you think?” 

Five cut in. “I’m sure that with your naive mind, it would seem that way-” 

“My naive mind?” Fred laughed lightly. “Feisty thing for a preteen, aren’t we?” 

“I’m fifty-eight, as I’ve already informed you, and anyway this body is quite clearly thirteen years old. The implication that—”

“So is this going to be a constant thing?” Klaus interrupted. “This pissing match between the two of you, or are we actually going to figure out how the fuck to get out of this situation?” 

Fred spoke first. “Have you considered other avenues? Time is fickle you know. The slightest alteration in events—”

“The butterfly effect, yeah,” Five said. “I haven’t had much time to consider other avenues. Probability mapping is impractical and time consuming. This is the plan and we are sticking with it.” 

“The hardly seems prudent.” He looked over at Klaus again. “But I will help you. With this being the last in my lecture series, I’m looking for new inspiration for my next paper. This might be just the thing.” 

“Glad we could help,” Five said flatly. 

“We should move somewhere more private though, to discuss the finer details.” 

They followed Fred out of the building and towards the residence halls. 

“So, How is it?” Klaus whispered conspiratorially as they walked. 

“How is what?” 

“You know, seeing what a prick you are to deal with.” Klaus’ smile couldn’t quite stretch wide enough to contain all of his glee. The image of the Cheshire Cat sparked unexpectedly into Five’s mind. 

“Shut up,” Five said, though it wasn’t as heated as he had intended it to be. 

The walk back to the the visitor’s flats was short, and as soon as they entered the one room flat Fred made himself busy clearing the surface of the table in the far corner, moving mugs and spread open books and bits of notebook paper off to the side. He put on tea—at his insistence—and then grabbed paper and pen for each of them. 

They set to work divulging all of the details of their escapades from the former timeline with Five leading most of the story through his work in the past as well. Fred asked a lot of clarifying questions, and took extensive notes. After what seemed like way too long he finally was ready to discuss the details of what to do next. 

“Is it too much to assume you have the names and locations of the others?” Fred asked. 

Five handed them over wordlessly. Klaus was strewn across the floor, humming a tune Five was not familiar with, nearly dead with boredom. 

“You have this one’s location wrong,” Fred said after reading quickly through the list. He pointed at Luther’s name. 

Five felt his eyebrows furrow. “Every news source I could find said he was born in Herefordshire.” 

“He was. But he’s in Swindon now at the UK Space Agency.” 

“You know him?” Klaus asked, not hiding the surprise from his voice. 

“Of course. He’s my brother.” 

“Brother,” Klaus echoed as he sat up. 

“Twin,” Fred clarified. “Is that not the case in your reality?” 

“ _Twin_?” Klaus’ voice cracked slightly, ignoring Fred’s question. “You look so different.” 

“Surely you’ve heard of fraternal twins,” Fred said, looking at Klaus like he wasn’t sure he actually had. 

“Five,” Klaus said, turning his attention to him. His words were careful. It irritated Five when people spoke to him like this, as though they weren’t sure if he would snap or not. As though they were speaking to a caged and frightened animal. “How we doing?” 

“Let’s go,” Five said, standing suddenly. He could sort his emotions later. For now, it was all about moving towards his continuous goal: ending the apocalypse. Things like families and feelings could wait until after they all didn’t die. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all for now! Thanks for reading! Up next is Luther!! I am open to any and all ideas :) 
> 
> Come talk to me on tumblr if you'd like! @gladiatorgrl


	5. There Doesn't Seem to Be Anyone Around

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the delay. I don't have really any excuses that will feel sufficient, but as I am a teacher and now officially on summer break, I will have significantly more time to dedicate to this fic.

Five had never relied on someone else to transport him to another place. Another time, sure, he had used the Commission’s briefcases after all, but even still, he had never had to rely on someone else’s power to transport him anywhere. He could admit, with not a hint of uncertainty, that it was not something he particularly enjoyed. 

When Five, Fred, and Klaus arrived inside the building of the UK Space Agency, it became clear to Five and Klaus that this was not the first time Fred had come to check up on his brother. 

“I am interested if you will find him much different from your version. My brother is quite a…simplistic person.” 

Klaus and Five exchanged a look of mild apprehension. There was hardly any time to dwell on it however, as Fred was already exiting the small room he had brought them into and was walking with purpose down the hallways. 

He stopped in front of an office door with a golden placard that read Braddock, turning to check that the other two were still there.

“Ready?” he asked. 

Klaus clapped his hands together in faux glee, but Five remained unaffected by the asinine question. 

“Obviously,” he said flatly. 

Fred nodded before opening the door and walking through. 

The man sitting behind the desk looked exactly like Luther, right down to the fine lines of unease that crinkled his forehead. He poured over notes spread out on his desk the same way Luther might look over mission notes, eyes darting from page to page as he tried to put together all of the various pieces of information. He chewed on the eraser of his pencil, which looked too small in his hands. His upper body was considerably smaller than they were used to without the genetic modifications their father had made, but his strength was still obvious in his motions. 

He glanced up from his notes to Fred’s face. 

“You’ve got to stop breaking in here,” he muttered, before going back to the notes. 

Five walked closer, directly up to his desk to lay his hands flat on the surface of Luther’s desk. Apparently he was still as oblivious as ever. 

At the sudden movement Luther looked up to finally take in the presence of Five and Klaus. His eyes went slightly wide as he stared at the younger version of his brother. 

“What did you do, Fred?” He examined Five a little closer, moving his hand forward to tap Five’s hand to see if he were real. Five slapped his hand away, but it did nothing to change Luther’s amazement. 

“Nothing,” Fred said with a sigh as he made his way to one of the two chairs on the opposite side of Luther’s desk. The leather of the armchair protested slightly as he sat down and the noise seemed to echo through the silent office. Klaus closed the door before walking closer as well. “These two are apparently from an alternative reality.” 

Luther looked as though he sincerely did not believe that. “And what exactly are they doing in my office?” 

“They want you to play hero,” Fred said. 

“We are trying to reunite our family,” Klaus clarified. 

Five rolled his eyes before focusing his attention on Luther. “You are aware of the Umbrella Academy I am assuming?”

He didn’t wait for an answer. “In our reality we are the members that were selected to be a part of it. There are quite a few complicated technicalities, but what you need to know is that we are looking to reunite the group that exists in our reality with their alternate versions in this reality.” 

“Ok,” Luther said slowly, eyes shifting between Klaus and Five. “What does that have to do with me?” 

“You’re one of our original group,” Klaus said pleasantly. 

“I’ve never been a part of the Umbrella Academy.” 

Five tried to explain it as simply as possible. “In our world. In our world you are. And we need you and everyone else from our world to get together in this world so that we can go back to our own.” 

“I don’t…” Luther looked to his brother. “Fred?” 

Fred looked around the office. “Still trying to figure out that super telescope?” he asked dryly as he stared at the various awards that lined his brother’s office. 

“Yes,” Luther answered distractedly. “Wait a second. You’re telling me you just believe these two?” 

Fred looked at his brother. “Why wouldn’t I?” 

Luther looked slightly horrified. “Besides the fact that they are claiming to be part of an _alternate universe?_ It isn’t sketchy that they went to you first?” 

“Makes perfect sense to me. Check your paranoia, now is not the time for a public display.” 

Luther ignored the dig. “Why should I help you? Why should _we_ help you?” 

“Because if you don’t, you will be responsible for the apocalypse.” 

Luther laughed nervously, running a hand through his hair. He wore it longer than usual, so the strands which had been smoothed into place with some kind of pomade were slightly displaced through the gesture. 

“Is that so?” 

“Yes,” Five said tightly. “It is.” 

“Ok…If you know so much about me and about my brother, prove it.” 

“Prove it?” Five repeated, leaning back slightly. He was shocked by the depths of Luther’s stupidity. 

“That’s right.” 

Five looked incredulously at Fred, who shrugged his shoulders. 

“I’m not your friendly neighborhood time-traveler, here for a fun time and a quick moral lesson,” Five all but snarled. “I don’t do parlor tricks and we don’t have time to waste. Its you, Fred, and four others. So, as you can see we still have quite a bit to get done.” 

“Just show him a picture of Allison,” Klaus said as he picked up a rather ornate paperweight from Luther’s desk. He tossed it between his hands, his eyes never leaving the object as he continued to speak. “I’m sure we can entice Little Luther to help us.” 

“Wait,” Luther said after throwing a particularly abashed glance at Klaus. “Allison Aoide?” 

“So he _does_ know her,” Klaus said, smiling wide. 

That name was the best lead they had managed to find on Allison, who was living in Vancouver as a well-known humanitarian. Five didn’t chalk it up to coincidence. 

“We don't know the extent to which our relationships have been changed in this reality,” Five said, examining Luther’s hopeful face. “So I can’t prove to you anything about your life. From what my brother and I can tell, you all lead your own lives in this reality. That’s not really the case where we come from.” 

“The Umbrella Academy is more of a lifetime prison sentence for a crime you didn’t commit,” Klaus supplied. 

Luther’s eyes slid to Klaus, his mouth twitching slightly as Klaus threw his possession higher and higher in the air, each catch more precarious than the last. 

“But…” Five admitted. “Allison was a part of the Academy, and I don’t believe in coincidences. So if you know her here I’m willing to be its our Allison.” 

“Why reunite you all?” Luther asked. “How does that stop the apocalypse? And how exactly is it caused? Alien-invasion? Technology take-over?” 

“Slow down, big boy,” Klaus smirked. 

At Luther’s questions, Fred finally spoke up. “The Commission will be after them.” 

Luther paled as he looked at his brother. They didn’t speak for a moment, silently communicating with each other. 

Five looked between the two of them. He turned to Fred completely.

“You know about the Commission?” he asked finally. 

Fred shrugged noncommittally. “They approached me in my youth.” 

“And you didn’t tell us…” 

“It wasn’t a pleasant conversation they last had,” Luther said. “And I’d rather not get involved with them again.” 

“I can handle them,” Fred said assuredly. 

Luther looked uneasy. 

“Well,” Five said, turning back to Luther. “We already told your brother the plan, but essentially drawing the attention of the Commission will allow us to return to our original timeline so that we can stop Vanya.”

“Wait, you know who causes it and you don’t want to just go right after them?” 

“She’s too powerful.” Five imbued as much finality into his words as he could, but even Fred seemed intrigued to push for more. 

“How do you know?” Fred hedged. “You have us, and surely the current Umbrella Academy—”

“They are as fractured as we were the first time. Look, I’ve seen the repercussions of the first apocalypse first hand, and I was there for the second time we tried to stop it. It’s not enough. We aren’t enough against her. There’s too much…” He struggled for the wording. 

“There’s too much shit between her and the family. No matter what reality it is,” Klaus said. “She was alone. Terrified of what was happening to her. Shocked to learn she had powers. It’s too much…emotional energy for anything but complete disaster.” 

“She won’t respond well if we all coming rushing at her, telling her about powers she didn’t know she had,” Five continued. “The last person to do that in our world died.” 

“Horribly,” Klaus amended.

“We can’t fix her in this reality. We have to go back to our own.” 

“She’s not broken,” Klaus said, turning towards Five. “Stop talking about her like that.” 

“Don’t be sensitive, Klaus. You know what I mean.” 

“No. I don’t You know why? Because you keep saying that ‘we can fix her’. There’s nothing wrong with her that isn’t wrong with any of the rest of us.” 

“Not the time,” Five said fiercely. 

“Prick,” Klaus decided. He turned to Luther. “Are you helping us or what?” 

“Don’t you want to be a hero, Luther?” There was something just slightly hard to place in Fred’s question. But, it seemed to work. 

“How long do we have?” 

“Four days.” 

Luther let out a small chuckle of disbelief. “Alright. So we go after Allison next?” 

Klaus let out a laugh. “Fucking hopeless, even in this reality.” 

“Allison is in Vancouver,” Fred said. “We should go for the next best power. A voice that whispers rumors isn’t helpful in our fight.” 

“That’s a terrible argument,” Luther said. 

“We go after the tentacle boy next,” Fred decided. 

“Where is he?” 

“San Quentin State Prison.” 

“You think breaking someone out of prison makes more sense than going after Allison?” Luther asked in disbelief. 

“Why do you two get to decide? I want _my_ doppelgänger!” Klaus whined. 

“We should go based on vicinity,” Five said, though it was clear halfway through his sentence that no one was listening to him. 

‘What exactly is your power?” Fred asked Klaus disdainfully. 

“Fuck yourself,” Klaus said. 

“Allison is on the edge of North America. We can work our way down to California to secure the others,” Luther offered. 

“And why would we do that?” Fred asked, already prepared to launch into a retort. 

Five was getting a headache. “We’ll go for Klaus,” he said finally. “If only to shut everyone the fuck up.” 

Klaus let out a whoop at the victory and lunged forward to throw the bird at Fred. He looked ridiculous, especially with his tongue sticking out, and Fred did not hesitate to tell him that. Luther admonished his brother for being so rude, and Five let out a low groan. 

“Come on. Next stop is Berlin.” 

“To Deutschland!” Klaus hollered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're off to see Klaus in Germany! I know these past few chapters have been a bit slow as they are recruiting Luther and Fred, but the next chapter will have some action (along with my take on some of that...potential...Klaus hasn't quite lived up to yet) Stay tuned!
> 
> Come yell at me for taking so long to post on tumblr @gladiatorgrl


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